warning: don't sushi and drive

can you see the soy dripping down my thigh (which looks gigantic in this photo)? well, i got done at the gym and was starving, so i got grocery store sushi and attempted to eat it on the way home.

bad idea.

castle combe

the first stop on our mad max tour of the cotswolds was Castle Combe. it was the loveliest village we visited all day, and was truly out-of-the-way as we had to drive down single lane country roads to get there-- with traffic going both ways! the driver was so collected... i would have fallen to pieces driving like that. anyhow, the beauty of the place was somewhat enhanced and somewhat marred by the fact that they were shooting a film there that day called Stardust. the scenery was enhanced by the props you'll see in the following photos that looked hokey in real life, but photographed beautifully (i guess that's the point). the scenery was marred by the pylons, cables, clamps, stands, lights and everything else it takes to make the place into a living movie set.

the village is actually still inhabited by private residents, which i guess can be somewhat rare. other historic cottages and villages are owned by the national trust in the uk. there is a lovely manor house at the edge of town which has been turned into a posh hotel, the likes of which we could only hope to afford. turns out it didn't matter whether or not it was too expensive... the whole place was rented out by the cast & crew which included robert deniro, michelle pfieffer, sienna miller and claire danes. so, in a way, we got a bit of stardust ourselves.

cotswolds textures

a textural introduction to the cotswolds... all photos were taken by t. i take no credit.

recitations

i'll take a quick break from my travelogue to insert the story of our morning. and i hadn't even gotten to the photos of the cotswolds yet!

as you can guess by the photos, it was recital day today. the studio we attend doesn't make a huge production of it... no $100 costumes to buy or $60 performance fees. just kids dancing and having fun.

the production was a 27 minute rendition of 'hansel and gretel' and featured our daughter as a bunny (left) and our son as a blackbird (below). he was the ONLY BOY in the entire thing, and it didn't faze him even a bit.

the dancing was so cute it made me laugh until i had tears in my eyes... watching these little critters tromping about the stage, mostly cluelessly. utterly precious.

but thank god we don't have to do it again until next year. whew!

prior park landscape gardens

overlooking bath are the prior park landscape gardens, just about a 20 minute walk (straight uphill) from our b & b. it was recommended by our host, peter, and was the perfect thing to do after our trip to stonehenge. the day was breezy, warm and sunny, and the nature trails and vistas of the park were stunning.
there was a private (catholic, i think) school just past the gardens up the hill, shown below. these students get to overlook the view every day! imagine the deprivation they must feel. i'm thinking of encouraging our children to go away to college in bath, if only so we can visit often.


below is the vista, bath in the distance. there is a gorgeous palladian bridge over the lake, as you can see.
the next photo is simply a reverse angle from the bottom of the hill, but no less majestic. i was so glad we spent the afternoon wandering in the hills! there is also a 6 mile "skyline walk" that you can hike in the hills above bath. we opted NOT to do this, but did exit the park the back way and wandered down quaint narrow lanes back into town. it was fantastic.

stonehenge

early on the morning of may 10th, t and i boarded the minibus that would take us to stonehenge. we were initially supposed to take a full-day tour of glastonbury and wells with scarper tours (and i was REALLY looking forward to it) but due to lack of interest, that tour was cancelled. the kind folks at the tour company offered to take us to stonehenge for free, and although neither of us really cared to see it, we accepted the generous offer and figured that we could put a big CHECK next to STONEHENGE in our lifelong THINGS TO SEE list.
the trip there was about an hour. the tour guide, simon, reminded me of our son, as he said his "th" sound as an "f" or a "v" as in "nuffing" instead of "nothing." we passed over the hills surrounding bath into the wiltshire plain. everywhere were fields of green and an almost blinding neon yellow. we asked what these crops were, and were told that they were "oil-seed rape" or what we call rapeseed, and it is used for canola oil and margarine. we were also told that these fields turn a dismal brown color for the entire summer.
stonehenge was cool, we got to wander around it for an hour, which was really too long. i was surprised by how close you could get, and what panoramic unadulterated views you could get, even with all the people milling about. the best part was getting trinkets for the kids in the gift shop, and i was right... they loved them. while we were gone, they had even watched a special on stonehenge, and h learned more about it than i did!

after the tour we had the whole rest of a sunny day to explore bath some more.

it's superman's life...

i was at walmart with s today, wandering the cereal aisle when... lo and behold!... it's a bird, it's a plane, it's.... SUPERMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!! okay, it's not so special, really, unless you consider that the illustration of superman was done by the INIMITABLE tommy lee edwards. i got a dorky fangirl look on my face and couldn't wait to take it home. here's the part where everybody figures out that i'm a fool in love with my husband, and i'm SO proud when i see his work. even when it's at walmart. on a cereal box.

still wasn't as good as the men in black lunchbox or the harry potter valentines, but it was still a great surprise.

bath abbey

the abbey from the square

a reflection of me and the ceiling

splendor!

serenity

incoming storm

wandering bath

i like the post title... it brings visions of an old claw-footed tub toddling aimlessly about, doesn't it? anyhow, welcome to my official 100th post! ah, and it seems like just yesterday that i wrote post #1. but, here we are, a mite bit jet lagged still, after 3 days. for some reason i still want to nod off early, and my eyes have been popping open by 5 am.

have a wander around bath, somerset, uk as we did on may 9th. i'll show more specific photos in different posts.
walking across the bridge into town we had a view of the avon & kennet canal as well as the pulteney bridge. many days we walked along the canal into town.

a lovely cityscape in bath on a lovely day.

chimneys of the many many bath-stone georgian townhouses you see throughout the town.

just a pretty gate on pulteney street.

radnor guest house

we stayed in a lovely and economical guest house just over the bridge from central bath. the hosts, peter and jane, were so helpful and friendly, and really accomodated us and our needs. it was small but clean, modern and comfortable. i couldn't have chosen a better place, and it was pure luck since i found it on the web.

this is me in the sitting area near the breakfast room looking really baffled over whatever i'm reading. the breakfasts were hot, fresh, and soooo tasty! eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, and sauteed mushrooms, and also an assortment of fresh fruit, yogurt, granola and cereal. the best was the pot of french press coffee each morning.

the courtyard was shared with jane and peter's residence. they are excellent gardeners and had many awards from "bath in bloom" displayed, as well as years' worth of garden photos from the guest house.
looking up pulteney street, the house is on the left. i'll write more of our bath adventures tomorrow!

i'm back!

flying over ireland early morning may 9th

hi all! i'm back. i was here in spirit, but not in blogreality. good to be HOME again and i can't wait to share our trip with family and friends. give me a while to unpack, and i'll try to do quick posts with photos until i have time to write a bit more.

after returning from the uk, the "r" sound sure sounds harrrd stateside! and of course, coming home through newark was a harsh reality after bristol.

cheers!

blogging hiatus

oh, i know, it's the words everyone hates to use. sad but true, i'm signing off for a while. i don't think i'll have a sane enough thought to coherently pull together into a post before t and i leave for england on monday. after that point, i won't have internet access for a week (we're not taking the laptop) so no stories 'til after i get back.

in a way, having no internet and no cell phones will be a relief-- a true vacation.

we will be doing a bit of sightseeing before the business part of the trip kicks in, and hopefully i'll be chock full o' jolly good british tales when i return.

cheerio! and may the force be with you all.

alert: bad mommy

so y'all know about the lost tooth from yesterday.

here's the rest of the story (i feel like paul harvey now).

h came straight in the door and put the tooth beneath his pillow. we proceeded with our usual afterschool routines: snack, play, homework, dinner, bath. it was a little late when h went to bed, and even later when i finally got s to bed, and since i had already drunk my alloted 1 glass of cheap cabernet and t was out, i decided to just hit the hay myself.

but i forgot about the tooth.

this morning after getting dressed, h excitedy flipped his pillow, and what did he find??? his rotten old tooth. i felt like i had "bad mommy" tattooed on my forehead. what a failure i am! i could see that he was upset, and i was just kicking myself, so i suggested emailing the tooth fairy to make sure she knew about the tooth.

she wrote back... this very sensitive note:

Dear H,

I am sorry that I didn't leave your money under your pillow last night. It was a very busy night and by the time I got to your house, I had run out of money! I will go to the ATM, and I promise you'll be first on my list tonight.

You are a very good boy, and I'm excited to get that tooth from you!

Love,

The Tooth Fairy


that's nice and all, but i will be kicking myself for the rest of my life.

mommy goes to first grade

today i had some end-of-year business to hash out at school with the pta president and the principal of h's school, so of course i had to have lunch with him and his first grade class before the meeting. i got him burger king and brought it to school, which helped not only his cool quotient, but also mine. i can be cool that way, really!

so i sat and listened to all the little first grade stories, stories about being 6 and 7 years old. i heard loads of little brother/ little sister stories, and a bunch about playstations, xboxes, and other assorted video game consoles. the kid that took the cake... and REALLY wanted to SHARE with me was the hunter's son. he peppered me with questions... "what kind of gun does h's dad have?" (um, a paintball gun? and some replicas?), "does h hunt with his dad?" (um, no?), "how many guns does h's dad have?" (um, i already answered that question?), and "how many deer has h's dad killed?" (um, none?). he graciously offered for h to go hunting with him and his dad, after all, it's mostly just looking around at nature and all. unless he and his brother try to hit targets with their matching guns, that is. my little h screwed up his face and said, "shoot deer? to KILL them? ummm... i don't think i want to go."

i had visions in my head of j wearing her fur coat and toting her shotgun through the woods, looking not unlike annie oakley in her heyday.

but i digress. i look over at h, and he is furiously pushing his loose tooth around with his tongue, displaying a grisly section of bloody nerve and gum tissue. it's a good thing i hadn't eaten the school lunch, 'cause i may have hurled. seth, across the table, says just this: "if you pull out your tooth at the lunch table, i'm gonna PUKE!" this makes h work all the more diligently on the tooth, but alas, by the time lunch ended, he still was not successful at extraction.

first thing he says when he gets off the bus?? you guessed it... "I LOST MY TOOTH!" but all i wanna know is... did seth barf?

best friends

for some reason lately, i've been remembering my best friend from childhood. it's a rite of passage to have that one FIRST best friend, the one that you brag to everyone you meet, "THIS is MY best friend."

her name was angelique michelle litten, but everyone called her angel. i met her the summer that i turned six when my family returned to suburban indianapolis from our summer place on lake michigan. the evening that we got back was always a time when my older brother and i would wander the neighborhood... seeing what had changed, who had lost teeth, what new toys our friends had gotten. a summer away from home is an eternity to a kid, and we had to get back in the loop before school started. as i walked in front of richard jackson's house, i saw a girl being tied to a tree with jumpropes. i didn't recognize her, but was so desperate for friends that i told her captors to untie her since they weren't being nice to the new girl. "oh, no, i LIKE it!" she proclaimed with a big grin.

now, i had met lots of different kids, but this one was an enigma. first of all, she had been born in a foreign land... ALASKA! how romantic was that? and she was a TWIN! the stuff of novels to a six year old. but most of all, she lived 2 doors down and she wanted to be friends with ME... incomprehensible to someone a year and a half younger than she.

although she only lived in that house for a year, then moved aaaaaallllll the way to the other side of the elementary (a huge distance to me at 7, but going back there now, it was no more than 1/4 of a mile), we were inseparable for several years to come. my best memories of her are on vacation... she frequently joined our family on trips to my grandma's house, and to the summer cottage. one time at my grandma's, we thought we were so sassy and dressed exactly alike for church. we giggled and whispered about the little girl that said about us, "them two girls are TWINS!"

we were probably a great nuisance to our parents since we were constantly asking them to judge one of our myriad of contests. a drawing contest, a coloring contest, a dance contest, a swinging contest. my dad had hung swings in our basement when we were kids, so we would come up with elaborate "swing routines" and gather the troops to watch us perform.

one time we nearly drove a babysitter to tears with our taunts... her name was wendy, and we kept singing jingles from wendy's restaurant commercials. for hours. all night long. such evil little girls.

she moved away in middle school to a town not too far away, but we had drifted as friends by that point... always staying in touch, but never really close again. she came to see me when i returned after a year in l.a. when i was 20, and even met t at that time. she came to our wedding in 1995, but that was the last i heard from her. i've googled her name and come up empty.

all the photos of us together are on slide (yes SLIDE) archives at my folks' house. maybe someday i'll find a funny picture of us and have it printed so i can remember the good old years of my best friend from childhood.

did you have a best friend, too?